Even after a record-breaking season, Christian Horner insists that the team will not rest on its laurels.
Having established a substantial lead over the rest of the field early on, Red Bull phased out their RB19 upgrade packages as early as mid-2023, which meant they had a headstart on developing what would become this year’s single seater.
What Red Bull has been doing in the ground effect era has clearly been working, so it makes sense that the team intends to keep moving in that direction, with Horner referring to the design as an “evolution not revolution.”
“All areas have been revisited in the car, we can’t afford to have any complacency,” he said.
“The car is very much an evolution of a theme. We’re not reinventing the wheel, so that has been very much the route of the engineering over the last 12 months.”
Horner admitted that he expects to see a host of RB19-inspired designs on the grid in the upcoming season as rival teams attempt to emulate Red Bull’s success.
“I’m fully expecting with stable regs and diminishing returns for us because I think we got to the top of the curve quicker than others, the field is going to converge.
“I’m sure over the next two years we’re going to see much closer racing.
“There’s always a reset as you go into the following year, and I’m convinced that you’ll see a lot more cars that perhaps look like an RB19 philosophy,” he explained.
“If you stand still in this business, you tend to be going backwards.”
Horner added that he doesn’t believe Red Bull will be able to reach the same dizzying heights that it did in 2023: “We will not repeat the year. It will go down as a unicorn year for us, that’s for sure.”
And as for who can potentially step up to the plate and challenge Red Bull in 2024?
“Mercedes has great strength in depth.
“Obviously, they’ve had a difficult period, but they’ve got great drivers, and they will get it together, one would assume, at some point; McLaren had a great back end of the year, and Ferrari show flashes of real potential.
“So it’s difficult to identify which of those is likely to be the biggest challenger, but you could take your pick almost.”
